Competencies for Today's Workforce - Critical Thinking

In a recent survey conducted by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) a significant skills gap was identified in addition to a lack of the following critical soft skills: communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking.  Respondents also reported that leadership or executive-level skills were the number one skills gap in their organization (Pace, 2012).

Pace (2012) identified the following competencies that employees look for in their young workforce. These competencies are provided as they were reported 20 years ago, today, along with predictions for the future workforce (see table below). 

Top 5 competencies employees look for in youths entering workforce
20 Yrs. AGO	TODAY	FUTURE
Technical Mastery	Self-motivation and Discipline	Adaptability
Self-motivation and Discipline	Effective Communication	Effective Communication
Confidence	Learning Agility	Learning Agility
Effective Communication	Self-Awareness	Multicultural Awareness
Resourcefulness	Adaptability	Self-motivation and Discipline
		Collaboration

There are two discrepancies from the previous information. The first is that even though respondents identified the following skills gap lacking in their workplace (communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking), they also reported that leadership training was the number one skill gap in their organization. Additionally, the top five competencies for the entering workforce do not include those missing skills that were already identified, with the exception of communication and collaboration, although collaboration was only listed in the future category. This leaves out creativity and critical thinking skills.

With nearly $12 billion dollars dedicated to leadership training in the US alone (Peters, Stephens, & Baum, 2012), there is a disproportion of training leadership related skills compared to training the required critical skills needed to complete everyday tasks. Pace (2012) highlighted that collaboration between higher education and businesses was essential to developing these skills and to assist in closing these gaps. However, examples provided were for leadership skills collaboration programs. I agree with Pace, there must be collaboration between higher education and businesses (private & public) so that the workforce employed today will have appropriate competencies and skills. Unfortunately, concentrating on leadership training will not resolve the skills gap.

Concentrating on the competencies identified above would be the best place to begin closing the skills gap between what today’s businesses are requiring and what new employees are offering. Essential in closing this skills gap is to concentrate on providing today’s students with critical thinking skills. If students are not able to think on their feet and solve complex problems how can you expect them to lead these efforts from others (through leadership training?). If businesses concentrated on demanding and hiring employees that were able to demonstrate true critical thinking skills, then, their workforce would be able to be trained to be future leaders. Higher education should be able to train their students to practice critical thinking skills through workshops and groups assignments in classrooms (group projects add the collaboration to the mix, with collaboration being one of the competencies). Teaching critical thinking skills can be practiced and taught through the following three criteria:

• Reflective scepticism.
• Identifying and challenging assumptions.
• Imagining and exploring alternatives (Martin, 1995, p. 5).

Additionally, teaching students to become self-directed learners could be easily accomplished through the following four stages presented by Grow (1991), the student’s stage is listed first followed by the teacher’s role listed second:

• Dependent - Authority Coach
• Interested - Motivator, Guide
• Involved - Facilitator
• Self-Directed - Consultant, Delegator

By addressing the competencies, rather than trying to train leaders, businesses and higher education will be able to address the skills gap more effectively. Resulting, ultimately, in a better qualified workforce for the future.

References:

Grow, G. O. (1991). Teaching learners to be self-directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41, 125-149. doi: 10.1177/0001848191041003001

Martin, G. W. (1995). An approach to the facilitation and assessment of critical thinking in nurse education. Nurse Education Today, 16, 3-9.

Pace, A. (December, 2012). Preparing Today’s Youths for Tomorrow’s Workplace. Training + Development, 42-46.

Peters, L., Stephens, G. K., & Baum, J. (December, 2012). When developing leaders, don’t blame training! Training + Development, 59-62.

Training Evaluation Misses the Critical Thinking Dimension

For typical training courses the following four or five evaluation steps are the norm:

Level 1: Reaction and Perceived Values

Measures reaction to, and satisfaction with, the medium, content, and value of the project or program.

Level 2: Learning and Confidence

Measures what participants understand or learned from the project or program (information, knowledge, skills, and contacts).

Level 3: Application and Implementation

Measures what participants understand or learned from the project or program (information, knowledge, skills, and contacts).

Level 4: Impact and Consequences

Measures progress after the program implemented (the use of information, knowledge, skills, and contacts).

Level 5: ROI

Monetary Benefits.

(Phillips, & Phillips, 2007)

Evaluation is further divided into formative and summative evaluation, with formative evaluation relating to evaluating the training program and summative evaluation relating to the long-term effects of the training program (see Evaluation). Level 2, Learning and Confidence, is more of a formative evaluation measure and identifies whether trainees learned the material presented in the training. Level 3, application and consequences, is categorized as summative evaluation in which it looks at whether the trainees on-the-job behavior represents their learning from the training program.  

For these two specific levels of evaluation Phillips and Phillips (2007) highlighted information, knowledge, skills, and contacts. Providing employees (trainees) with the information that they need to conduct their job functions is critical. Additionally, providing employees with the knowledge to utilize this information in a productive manner is key to success. Having the skills to perform one's job is self-explanatory, but, as experience has shown us, people often lack the proper skills required to perform their main job function. Having the right contacts as well as knowing who has the information when needed is equally important. 

Using the following variables to evaluate training programs (information, knowledge, skills, and contacts) have proven to be effective for years. However, expanding on these variables to improve the evaluation process follows the continuous improvement process. As an effort to expand on the accuracy of training I would pose adding critical thinking to the mix.

Training employees to think critically helps to eliminate issues such as functional fixedness and mental sets. Ollinger, Jones, and Knoblich (2008) termed mental set as: " the repeated application of a successful method makes blind any alternative approach, because of the mechanization of the particular solution method" (p. 270). Alternatively, Duncker (1945) identified functional fixedness as: "the tendency to fixate on the typical use of an object or one of its parts" (as cited in McCaffrey, 2012, p. 216).

Adding the dimension of critical thinking to training endeavors will help transform learners (trainees, employees) to effective learners. Brindley, Walti, and Blaschke (2009) identified effective learners as those who are capable of coping with "complexity, contradictions, and large quantities of information, who seek out various sources of knowledge" (p. 3). By seeking out new sources of knowledge employees will better avoid the aforementioned traps of mental sets and functional fixedness. 

Including critical thinking skills as part of the training program, as well as incorporating evaluation of employees critical thinking skills on-the-job, could prove to produce better training results and on-the-job performance results. Additionally, including critical thinking in both the instructional and evaluation phases of the training program could improve both the formative and summative evaluations of the overall program. 

References:

Brindley, Walti, & Blaschke (2009). Creating effective collaborative learning groups in an online environment. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3), 1-18. 

McCaffrey, T. (2012). Innovation relies on the obscure: A key to overcoming the classic problem of functional fixedness. Psychological Science, 23(3), 215-218. dpi: 10.1177/0956797611429580

Ollinger, Jones, & Knoblich (2008). Investigating the effect of mental set in insight problem solving. Experimental Psychology, 55(4), 269-282. dpi: 10.1027/1618-3169.55.4.269

Phillips, & Phillips (2007). Show me the money: The use of ROI in performance improvement, part 1. Performance Improvement 46(9), 8-22. dpi: 10.1002/pfi.160